What Vice Ganda’s tongue-in-cheek remark says about us Filipinos

The latest buzz that has been circulating around the chattering classes is how ABS-CBN comedic talent Vice Ganda made a tongue-in-cheek remark when asked if he had any plans to pursue a career in public service.

At that point, everyone was laughing, except for Nancy Binay, of course.

A person made of sterner stuff, regardless of the truth, would easily shrug off such statements, made by a comedian of all people. But this is Nancy Binay we’re talking about. She’s gotten a lot of flak about her lack of qualifications and general aversion to discussing issues on the campaign trail, but she feels compelled to defend herself each and every time:

Of course, Nancy Binay. It’s all about past political grudges, like everything else in this country. Political grudges never get buried. But it still doesn’t change the fact that the only thing you have going for you in the senate race is popularity, according to the surveys. You don’t talk about your platform, or policies, and you’ve been avoiding debates.

Then again, politicians reflect the society that they govern. It’s a big question mark if Filipinos understand what big words (to them, at least) like platform, policy, and debate truly entail, anyway.

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Egged on by Vice Ganda’s remarks, the chattering classes are so busy showing outrage at Nancy Binay that it seems they’ve focused on her instead of looking for other deeper, more underlying issues, if any, with regards to how our society approaches elections.

On the other hand, Vice Ganda’s remark is a rare instance of a showbiz personality actually making a valid point. Whether Filipinos like it or not, that tongue-in-cheek remark says something about us Filipinos that we may not like to hear.

Filipinos would rather condemn the politician instead of the voters. They just don’t get it. People like Nancy Binay and Bam Aquino, whom Vice Ganda conveniently forgot to mention, are examples of people who can run and win because the people allow them to, despite having no prior relevant experience to entering in politics. And no, Bam Aquino’s ‘microfinance’ thingy doesn’t count. While Filipinos continue to get swayed by dance moves, catchy jingles, perceptions of popularity and being winnable, and money in exchange for votes, unqualified politicians will keep on laughing all the way to the bank.

Demanding platforms and strong positions from your prospective ‘public servants’ is a practice that needs to be ingrained into the very bottom foundation of the Filipino culture and psyche. If you want people to make smart political decisions, you need to ingrain in them the notion of how to purchase smartly. In case Filipinos forget, they also need to focus on the substance of what each politician brings, and not the form. Plus, they also need to learn to say no to the wrong things.

Filipinos take a passive-aggressive approach to things. This type of behavior doesn’t bode well at all for any attempts to hold the government accountable to the people. Impunity is the norm here because people are reluctant to tell you directly that what you did is wrong, or against the law. When hiya is the primary driver of such as in Filipino society, face-saving often comes at the cost of proactively upholding what is correct and law-abiding.

If you view your politicians as gods who can do no wrong, you’re not helping yourself, and you’re not helping your country. Filipinos cannot afford to be afraid to be timid and passive about evaluating their public servants’ performance, and they cannot afford to be complacent and uncritical of themselves. Filipinos need to make their public servants work for them, not the other way around, and definitely they can’t afford to be worked over by the public servants, too.

The Filipinos would do well to learn from Vice Ganda’s ‘liberation’. Vice Ganda is known to be blunt. I think, though, that if you’re a comedian, it’s but natural you have to be. Neither does he conform to the ‘macho Filipino’ or the ‘demure Filipina’ stereotypes that pervade Filipino society. If you do not fit into the pre-defined roles that Filipino society has set for you, they don’t try to understand you; they judge you prematurely and oftentimes, make fun of you, or use you for cheap laughs.

The focus in not on his gender; Filipinos need to liberate themselves from traditions and old ways of thinking that have served to be nothing but chains that keep them pinned down. To do this, Filipinos have to be self-critical. They can’t afford to keep up their stubbornness and they can’t afford to keep sticking to detrimental traditions.

The bottom line is simple:

Filipinos cannot rely on their showbiz celebrities and their politicians to do their thinking and ‘changing’ for them. If Filipinos truly want to change their society, they need to change their own ways of thinking. An ethic of personal accountability needs to be ingrained in Filipinos as a collective.

This doesn’t apply just to elections. It is actually what happens in between elections where we need to do the dirty work of proactively holding people to account through the system.

Being a foreigner who finds elections very interesting, I am saddened by the overt buying of votes. How can people expect honest governance from someone who bribes them to vote? What I find astouding is that some politicians (and hopefulls) actually buy votes with counterfeit currency printed in the Recto. It is not a secret that this is commonplace, especially in the province. It happens every election cycle. I often hear Filipinos complain about graft and corruption. When looking to lay blame for the way things are, one only needs to look in the mirror to find the culprit. They… Read more »

I am a Filipino and a registered voter. I completely agree with you. People here can’t get it through their thick skulls that we’re the reason for graft and corruption in the country. Money makes this country go round because everyone thinks we’re all poor and that if we have more than enough, we can have a better life in the future. Majority expects to have money raining down on them during election! It’s sickening. I, for one, cannot blame the people who leave the country. They are being said to have abandoned the country when it needs its citizens… Read more »

I think we should level up the qualifications for the person who wants to file for candidacy. Also, I don’t like the system of election campaign in our country. Since we are a democratic country, we should bring equal rights and opportunities to every electoral candidates. Imagine, most candidates who won in the election are those who can spend millions of their money to show themselves in TV Ads, endorsed by popular celebrities and be heard in the radio. This is not fair. Not all candidates are millionaires (Especially the new candidates). It’s unfair to those candidates who are not… Read more »

Vice Ganda says it as it is. At least he’s smart enough not to get into politics because he himself is aware that he doesn’t know a thing or two about it. I’m glad that there are still celebrities who think first before running for office. Unlike Manny Pacquiao or Richard Gomez who runs for the office even though they’re not even experienced and lacks a track record. It’s not Nancy’s fault just like it’s not Noynoy’s fault that he’s president now. People voted for him in 2010 and THEY are the reason why the country is suffering from starvation… Read more »

For someone who makes fun of other people to make money, I’d say Vice Ganda made me re-think my impression of him. I just hope more celebrities would voice out their opinion about politics in the country. Let’s face it, social media and netizens do not have much power to do it since only a small segment of the population go online to read about politics.

Vice’s sincerity earned my respect for him. At least he is honest with the fact that he does not know how our crappy politics work, nor the flawed constitution that continues to be exploited by those who are in power.

Once again, elections are proof that Filipinos are sarcastic when it comes to change – they expect their lives to get better yet they do not realize that they are also bringing their own downfall by electing people based on popularity and name alone.

THE PEOPLE DESERVE THE GOVERNMENT THAT THEY ELECT. THIS WAS A REMARK OF , I DON’T REMEMBER WHO, IN SOME TIMES PAST, BUT COULD STILL BE VALID TODAY. WHO ELECT THE PEOPLE COMPOSING THE ‘GOVERNMENT’? IT IS THE MAJORITY OF COURSE. SO WHICH SECTOR OF THE SOCIETY ARE WE REFERRING TO? IS IT THE UPPER CLASS? (THEY ARE A MINORITY) SO IT MUST BE THE LOWEST CLASS. THESE ARE THE PEOPLE WHO ARE DEPRIVED OF THE MOST BASIC NECESSITIES IN LIFE. MANY ARE IGNORANT; MANY DO NOT FEEL THE PRESENCE OF THE GOVERNMENT IN TERMS OF SOCIAL WELFARE, HEALTH ETC.… Read more »